The Palestinian Authority libel that Israel deliberately harvests organs from dead Palestinians has caught on in the Arab world. Last month Egyptian authorities temporarily denied Israeli doctors entry into Egypt to participate in a medical conference. The head of the Egyptian Medical Syndicate explained that this was because they "participated in torture" of Palestinians and because they "are also guilty of stealing the organs of Palestinian prisoners."

The following are the remarks by the head of the Egyptian Medical Syndicate as reported in the PA daily, Al-Ayyam:

"The head of the Egyptian Medical Syndicate, Dr. Hamdi Al-Sayed, said yesterday that the decisions of the [Egyptian] medical associations were based on a rejection of relations with Israeli doctors, since they took part in grave abuses against the Palestinian people. He stated, in press releases in Cairo, that the Egyptian Medical Syndicate views any type of normalization with the Israeli occupation as a crime.

In response to the Israeli doctors' protest over Egyptian authorities not issuing them permits to enter Egypt for a medical conference, he said: 'We have no regard or respect for the Israeli doctors because the medical community has condemned them due to their participation in the torture of Palestinian prisoners.' He added: 'The Israeli Medical Association has acknowledged having participated in torture, noting that it had done so with the aim of protecting Israeli citizens.' He stated that the Israeli doctors are also guilty of stealing the organs of Palestinian prisoners, and that 'such people will not be permitted to take part in our medical activities."

[Al-Ayyam, Nov. 27, 2009]

The Egyptian doctors are the latest in a line of Arab officials to publicly accept as fact the PA libel that Israel steals Palestinian body parts. Several Arab foreign ministers have given support to this libel in recent months, demanding an international investigation of organ theft:

[Headline:] "The Arab League Council publishes resolutions supporting the Palestinian issue and demands an investigation into the theft of the organs of our Shahids (Martyrs).""At the conclusion of its assembly in Cairo a short time ago, the Council of Arab Foreign Ministers published a series of resolutions in support of the Palestinian people. In addition, they demanded an investigation of Israel's crimes of stealing organs of Palestinian Shahids (Martyrs).They demanded the establishment of a UN Fact-Finding Mission in order to confirm that Israeli government gangs have stolen the organs of many Arab inhabitants, and to provide Arab and international aid to the [Palestinian] national committees that would be set up to investigate these crimes."

[WAFA official PA News Agency, Sept. 10, 2009]

Meanwhile, the Palestinian Authority continues to reinforce the libel. PA Minister of Prisoners' Affairs Issa Karake described last week how Israel "punishes" the dead by "disfiguring" the "Martyrs" and stealing their organs:

"Would you believe that Israel punishes not only those who are alive, but also the dead, by holding their corpses in secret military cemeteries inside Israel for many years, and when it returns some of the Shahids (Martyrs) to their families, they come back disfigured after organs have been stolen from them."

[PA TV (Fatah), Nov. 24, 2009]

To see more examples of PA's organ theft libel from PMW's collection, click here.